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The President has said that this budget is an "ideological" issue; one that will likely determine the direction of our nation in the years to come. The President is correct in that the budget decided upon by this Congress will choose between continued fiscal irresponsibility and an attempt at restoring some fiscal solvency to our nation. As one who spent many years in the private sector (as a salesman and then a schoolteacher) The sentiment of some in the Republican party is that federal salaries, when averaged appear too high. This sentiment may be based on the principle of return on investment (ROI). We might ask "what does one get for a highly paid federal employee, relative to the private sector?" Said employees (those in the highest salary ranges) are members of the SES or congressional / White House staff. This group (high salary workers) would also include Cabinet level appointees. Well, it seems the ROI for such salaries includes being groped at airports, formulating plans to bomb a non-hostile nation on behalf of the UN (Libya), enormous budget deficits, vast amounts of Medicare and Medicaid fraud and rapidly declining schools. At first glance, it appears that America's ROI for such salaries is indeed poor and the money appropriated for such could be better spent elsewhere. A second look might show dramatic improvements in service to our Veterans, continued global dominance in defense, the timely delivery of millions of parcels and mail pieces, the processing and payment of tens of millions of SSI payments, federal law enforcement protecting our cities and our nation. Comparing federal activity to the cost of similar processes in the private sector may be telling. Private space companies (i.e. scaled composites) have provided quicker advances in technology and space travel than NASA, local law enforcement has been as effective as federal agencies, especially in border cities, private corporations process millions of parcels and mail pieces (UPS/Fedex) and all of our defense equipment is produced by private enterprise. These tasks are generally done (with the exception perhaps of defense contractors with which there is no civilian comparison) much cheaper and more efficiently by private enterprise than in the federal government. What might this tell us about federal pay and more importantly about the federal government at large? The current Congressional budget is indeed an ideological one. What will future generations think of the ideology chosen by this Congress and the electorate they claim to represent?

The pay (cut) and hiring freeze I can live with but Congress and the Prez have to be out of their minds to mess with our retirements. This is utter non-sense to expect us to pay nearly 10x more and get nothing additional in return.
It's bad enough we have to deal with overpriced healthcare becase we can't benefit from the economies of scale the Fed could get by negotiating down to a handful of providers. It's even worse that our only matched investment option is the TSP. Who knows what's going on behind the scenes there? To think that I'm going to have to contribute over 6% of my salary to a retirement system that Congress could mess with further makes me seriously consider my employment options.
If the goals is to parity private industry Congress needs to wake up and offer some better solutions, like cheaper health care options, a FERS opt-out, and a 401k.

I'm not really sure where or how they are coming up with the average fed salary is $74,000-I make no where near that and work for the federal Government-I just dont see how they think the low grade GS's are going to make it for the next 3 years with no raises meanwhile everything else is going up-Gas up to $4.00-5.00 per gallon-the house , senate, congress are passing all these bills to freeze pay, cut benefits, cut retirement, all the while the regular federal workers get thrown under the bus and ran over, but nothing they pass is affecting them-thats where we need to start cut their pay, benefits, retirement, its so easy to make all these bills to hurt the regular fed when it does nothing to you!!

I usually agree with the Republicans, but this is one thing they really have WRONG. The majority of feds are lawyers, accountants, scientists, engineers, and other highly educated and skilled employees. We have contracted out virtually all the lower paying professions. You cannot compare our pay with the "average" private sector worker because that includes the folks flipping burgers, making beds, and taking out the trash. I am a lawyer with over 20 years of federal experience. My salary is already capped at $155K, while the starting salary for lawyers in Washington DC firms is around $160K. Many federal workers expect to be paid less than their private sector counterparts, however we feel our health insurance and retirement benefits help to make up for the lack of pay. If all of this goes through the incentive of working for the national good may no longer be enough to entice the best to come to work for the Federal Government and that would be a shame.

I couldn't have said it any better myself! I was about to write a comment spelling out the differences in professions and skills of federal employees versus the "average private sector" employee. You saved me the trouble. I don't see any burger-flipping feds around here. I am a revenue agent (accounting degree) with the IRS with over 35 years of federal service. I am surrounded by co-workers who are Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and those who have MBAs. There are very few clerical people left, maybe 1 for each large group of employees. Our union (NTEU) has made this argument over and over again in addressing the misinformation contained in numerous news articles written over the past year. As federal employees, we always felt that our benefits helped to make up for the lack of pay compared to private sector employment. With the recession for the last couple of years and unemployment in the private sector , we are suddenly singled out as greedy, overpaid feds!

The keep repeating the same twisted data and lies and FORCE their constituents and niave listeners to believe that it is fact and true. We've gone over this disparity of data over and over, but these trolls STILL place the language in our legislation (as you see). The data Issa is referring to was a twisted study by the Cato Institute (a republican funded company) who was hired by the GOP to do this. Plus, the average salary Issa is referring to is the DC region, NOT the USA.
And CharlesS, you usually agree with Republicans? Then you must be in the top 10% wealthy of this country, because that is who they cater to on all their legislation and issues. But if you work for the feds... I kinda doubt you are wealthy. Hope you like being duped! 2012 can't get here quick enough!